International Space Station set to receive blow-up extension

NASA funds an inflatable expansion from a commercial space startup.

A concept design for a module from Bigelow Aerospace, the company awarded the expansion contract from NASA.

Bigelow Aerospace

NASA has awarded $17.8 million to an aerospace contractor to add a new habitat module to the International Space Station, according to a press release issued by the agency on Monday. Bigelow Aerospace will develop the addition to help humans “thrive in space safely and affordably.” The details aren't yet clear, but Bigelow has designed modules that would triple the size of the ISS.

Bigelow Aerospace, a space technology startup that specializes in inflatable space habitats, created a proposal for a cylindrical “Bigelow Expandable Activity Module” back in January 2011. The original concept design, the BA-2100, would be 2100 cubic meters in size, much larger than the ISS’s current 837 cubic meters. The module would measure 58.4 feet long, and would be 41.3 feet in diameter, allowing for a few distinct activity spaces within.

The BA-2100 was originally conceived as part of the Bigelow Commercial Space Station that was set to go into orbit in 2015. But deployment to the existing space station would presumably require some level of redesign. NASA and Bigelow Aerospace are set to hold a joint press conference at Bigelow’s headquarters in North Las Vegas, NV on January 16 to further discuss details of the joint venture. Here’s hoping that the ISS’s astronauts will finally get that sewing room they’ve always wanted.

That would be a huge addition... wonder how it would affect the existing layout? (radiators, docking of Soyuz/Progress/ATV/Dragon, other solar panels mounted directly to some of the habitat/science modules, etc...)

There are some very intriguing technologies being developed by the private sector right now. Bigelow inflatable habbitats. The Dragon capsule and the Falcon rocket. The Dream Chaser. While manned flight is not currently very promising outside of the venerable Russian Soyuz rockets. But the future is exciting with all this promising development. On top of that, Spaceship One and Spaceship Two, and the Mars rovers.

I want to know how something inflatable stands up to the scary things flying around near space such as a hypervelocity paint chip.

Pretty good. The shell is several layers of high durability material and closed cell foam sandwiched together. Hypervelocity particles vaporize/fragment themselves on the outer layer while the middle layers and foam absorb the much reduced fragments.

IIRC this was original NASA idea, first developed, then shelved, following that sold for a little and coming back as a private investment now. At least is survived, as it is looking as a practical idea for a lot more space in space comparing to the usual heavy metal construction.

I cannot even begin to describe how excited the past few years have made me with regards to space exploration. A renewed public interest (to some degree) in NASA, private space industry booming, Voyager reaching the edge of the solar system... I feel like a kid again!

nasaspaceflight.com has a very good article on this extension, which talks about the size of the module (not nearly 2100 m3), how it will be accommodated (node 3 aft), how it holds up to micrometeroid orbital debris (MMOD) damage (quite well, in fact better than the ISS modules currently on-orbit), how Bigelow came about (licensed Transhab technology from NASA in 1999).

It will be much smaller than Casey is suggesting, in fact, IIRC, BA 2100 can't be launched to the station on any existing vehicle as it would weight 70-100 tons (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BA_2100). The module Bigelow is designing for this contract might even be able to fit into the trunk section of a Dragon spacecraft.

Also, the module will be de-orbited after two years in order to free up ports for the commercial crew vehicles.

Totally thought the title suggested NASA had delayed blowing up the ISS, and was all WTF?!?

Glad I'm not the only one who read it that way. I just figured it was part of the EOL plan.

Can't possibly. That only works in Sci-Fi (Babylon 5 blown up because it was a hazard to navigation? LOOOOL!) Blowing up the ISS would result in millions of shrapnel flying at 16,000 mph. It would effectively leave the 400-425 Km orbit completely unusable for a while, and would likely frag any other hardware in that orbital neighborhood.

Totally thought the title suggested NASA had delayed blowing up the ISS, and was all WTF?!?

Glad I'm not the only one who read it that way. I just figured it was part of the EOL plan.

Can't possibly. That only works in Sci-Fi (Babylon 5 blown up because it was a hazard to navigation? LOOOOL!) Blowing up the ISS would result in millions of shrapnel flying at 16,000 mph. It would effectively leave the 400-425 Km orbit completely unusable for a while, and would likely frag any other hardware in that orbital neighborhood.

Huh, how did I miss the fact that Bigelow actually had stuff already in orbit? I must have only been reading Yahoo at the time. Typical since they only cover the 'interesting' stuff for Joe Six-pack. Of course, all Joe cares about is where he can get his next beer and where to find his next fix of porn, so this would NOT interest him. Still, if we could get Taylor Swift to go up to the Space Station it might perk interest briefly. But only briefly, America has become so 'immediate' gratification we won't stay focused on anything long now.

In all seriousness, I've been wondering why NASA hadn't already contacted them. This seems like an ideal way to add a lot of useful space into the ISS relatively cheaply.

Here's hoping that someone remembers just how useful the old running track was on Skylab and leaves an area of the Expansion for a running track. The ability of the astronauts and cosmonauts to take a "real" jog in kinda/sorta gravity that way would probably do wonders for their morale.

The really clever part about the Bigelow hab design is that they can integrate a water bladder into the inflatable skin. This bladder doubles as water storage and radiation shield, since water is really good at absorbing galactic cosmic radiation. The reinforced polymer matrix composite skin is much tougher than the old-school aluminum can structure because it can flex to dissipate energy when impacted by micrometeorite orbital debris. Very clever design.

Huh, how did I miss the fact that Bigelow actually had stuff already in orbit? I must have only been reading Yahoo at the time. Typical since they only cover the 'interesting' stuff for Joe Six-pack. Of course, all Joe cares about is where he can get his next beer and where to find his next fix of porn, so this would NOT interest him. Still, if we could get Taylor Swift to go up to the Space Station it might perk interest briefly. But only briefly, America has become so 'immediate' gratification we won't stay focused on anything long now.

That just gave me a great idea. Pron on the pull off label of a beer can. Now you can get both at once!

Picture is misleading. They will likely be getting a mostly empty bigelow hab. Granted they will eventually fill it up, for at first it will just be a big open storage closet. Still very cool. I still really want one.

This reminds me of the low end option for space exploration in a rather neat little public domain book, The Planet Strappers. It opens with the kids in some small town in the middle of nowhere stitching together their inflatable space domiciles and wondering if they can ever afford proper space suits and, of course, the big bucks for the launch. It is a great good-bad novel with rather limited character development, but lots of great sci-fi ideas all bashed together somehow.

Awesome, SpaceCamperMobiles. I can't wait. Hey, we could have Space-Dingle-Balls on satellites too, with giant American flags painted on. Affordable ones, I mean. It wouldn't matter if they got hit by an Oh-My-God particle because space could use a little fresh air now and then.

I've had a picture of a Bigelow habitat as one of my rotating backgrounds since I first read about them in 2005. I hope when they're done with it in 2 years that they ship more up and connect this one to them. It would be a waste just to throw it away.

It may be "inflatable", but that doesn't mean it isn't dang heavy. 100 metric tons? Isn't that more than 4 times the payload capacity of the Delta IV Heavy (heaviest payload US rocket currently available)? There's gonna have to be a lot more development on the transport side before this thing becomes practical.